1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a method for generating fixed packets while writing data into CDs and related apparatus, and more particularly, a method for generating fixed packets with counters counting non-encoded data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In modern information society, small, light, high-density, and low-cost optical disks have become one of the most popular non-volatile storage media. As high-speed optical disk drives capable of recording become popular, buffer under run becomes a serious problem. So-called buffer under-run occurs when a sequence of write-in data of a computer flows with a higher speed than an optical disk drive of the computer burns. In other words, a burning program of the computer reads data from a hard disk or an optical disk, and stores the read data in a buffer of the optical disk drive pending being written to an optical disk. Because the data in the hard disk or the optical disk is not continuous (that is, the buffer is sometimes full, and sometimes empty), once the buffer is empty, buffer under-run takes place.
One common cause of buffer under-run occurs when a user executes another program while burning is taking place. The computer has to stop transmitting data to the optical disk drive in order to boot the required program from the hard disk and rearrange system resources. Another cause is data source errors (like surface damage on the source optical disk), so that the computer is unable to find data, in turn causing the buffer to empty and so leading to buffer under-run.
A prior art optical disk drive can prevent buffer under-run by means of fixed packet burning, which means that the drive divides a sequence of data into a plurality of fixed packets, and inserts data between two fixed packets for connecting and separating the fixed packets before writing these fixed packets to an optical disk. The method of fixed packet burning prevents buffer under-run completely, consequently burning data by means of fixed packet burning with lower cost of product and higher efficiency has become a key development issue for modern information companies.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which illustrates a schematic diagram of a prior art fixed packet 10. The fixed packet 10 includes a front data FC (including 5 blocks generally), a partial write-in data PD (including 32 blocks generally), and a back data BC (including 2 blocks generally). The purpose of the front data FC is to indicate a start of the fixed packet 10. The partial write-in data PD is a part of the write-in data, which has been encoded into the fixed packet 10. The purpose of the back data BC is to indicate an end of the fixed packet 10. If a prior art optical disk drive of a computer burns write-in data into an optical disk by means of fixed packet burning, the drive moves and inserts data in the write-in data stored in a hard disk of the computer to transform the write-in data into a plurality of fixed packets, as shown in FIG. 1, and then burns the fixed packets into the optical disk.
However, the prior art fixed packet burning should move and insert data in the computer, which decreases burning speed and efficiency especially when burning data and executing programs at the same time, and may cause burning error if some error takes place when moving data.
In summary, the prior art fixed packet burning operates with low efficiency, and may cause burning error.